Santander to shed 1900 UK jobs

IT workers at risk as cull takes place in back-office operations

Santander wants £180m annual savings from the merger of its UK operations

The integration of Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley's (B&B's) savings unit with Abbey will result in the loss of some 1,900 jobs across the three businesses, Spanish bank Santander said today.

The exact breakdown of how many employees will be affected at each bank was not disclosed but a spokeswoman at A&L told Computing the cuts will take place mainly in the back-office area of the businesses, which includes IT in A&L’s case.

The spokeswoman added that talks with workers' unions have been initiated today.

Santander was keen to stress that the cull is not a reflection of the downturn, but part of a previously announced plan to generate annual cost savings of around £180m by 2012 from the purchase of A&L for £1.3bn in July.

The consolidated banking group currently employs 23,000 staff after the acquisitions of A&L and B&B, 15,000 of which are at Abbey, 7,000 at A &L and 1,000 at B&B.

"Today's announcement shows we are on track to fulfil the commitment we made at the time of the Alliance & Leicester acquisition to grow our UK business while ensuring we meet our cost-saving targets," said group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.